Publications by authors named "Lenk J"
Purpose: The distinction between pellucid-like keratoconus (PLK) and pellucid marginal corneal degeneration (PMD) based on tomographic examinations is difficult. In this study, corneal tomographic and biomechanical parameters, after classifying PMD and PLK using swept-source optical coherence tomography, were analyzed.
Methods: Diagnoses of PLK and PMD were made using SS-OCT imaging, two groups were formed: PLK (n = 30) and PMD (n = 10).
Purpose: To compare the parameters and indices of a novel swept-source optical coherence tomography device (SS-OCT, ANTERION) with those of a rotating Scheimpflug camera (RSC)-based tomograph (Pentacam) in normal and keratoconic (KC) eyes.
Methods: This prospective, monocentric, cross-sectional study included individuals with unoperated normal and KC eyes, selecting one eye per subject. Ectasia-specific parameters analysed with the SS-OCT were difference in mean keratometry (K) in the inferior and superior meridians, maximum keratometry value (K), elevation of the posterior surface at the thinnest point, screening corneal objective risk of ectasia (SCORE) and thinnest point thickness.
Introduction: Multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) is gold standard for the primary diagnostic work-up of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa). The aim of this study was to assess the benefit of the perfusion sequence and the non-inferiority of an MRI without contrast administration (bpMRI) compared to mpMRI while taking clinical parameters into account.
Methods: In this retrospective, non-interventional study we examined MRI data from 355 biopsy-naïve patients, performed on a 3T MRI system, evaluated by a board-certified radiologist with over 10 years of experience with subsequent mpMRI-TRUS fusion biopsy.
Changes in the biomechanical and biochemical properties of the human cornea play an important role in the pathogenesis of ectatic diseases. A number of conditions in primarily acquired (keratoconus or pellucid marginal degeneration) or secondarily induced (iatrogenic keratectasia after refractive laser surgeries) ectatic disorders lead to decreased biomechanical stability. Corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) represents a technique to slow or even halt the progression of ectatic pathologies.
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- The study aimed to improve prostate cancer biopsy decision strategies by combining zone-specific prostate-specific antigen density (sPSAD) with the PI-RADS system.
- Using a deep learning system, researchers segmented MRI images to calculate sPSAD for the whole gland and transition zone, yielding better detection rates for significant prostate cancer compared to traditional methods.
- The findings indicated that adopting sPSAD reduced false positives and enhanced specificity in biopsy decisions, particularly in cases classified as PI-RADS 3, while still maintaining high sensitivity for detecting more serious cancer cases.
White Americans' preference for Black people in advertising has increased in the past 66 y: A meta-analysis.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2024
This study investigates Black and White consumers' preferences for Black versus White people in United States advertising contexts over 66 y, from 1956 until 2022, a time in which the United States has experienced significant ethno-racial diversification. Examining Black and White consumers' reactions to visual advertising over more than half a century offers a unique and dynamic view of interracial preferences. Mass advertising reaches an audience of billions and can shape people's attitudes and behavior, emphasizing the relevance of clarifying the influence of race in advertising, how it has evolved over time, and how it may contribute to mitigating discrimination based on racial perceptions.
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- The study addresses challenges in organizing and retrieving large volumes of medical imaging data, focusing on developing a CNN that classifies images based on voxel data without relying on traditional naming and metadata.
- A 3D CNN was trained on over 31,000 prostate MRI volumes using patient-based cross-validation, demonstrating high accuracy (99.88%) even when trained with a reduced dataset (10%).
- The CNN's capabilities in automatic sequence identification of prostate MRIs could improve the management of medical imaging data and support more efficient clinical workflows using AI.
Article Synopsis
- The text discusses serious complications that can occur after a specific surgical procedure called pancreaticoduodenectomy, including issues like pseudoaneurysms and leakage.
- It presents a case where a patient experienced bleeding from the right hepatic artery stump post-surgery.
- The treatment involved a minimally invasive endovascular technique using a covered stent, as other methods like coil or glue embolization weren't applicable due to the patient's anatomy.
Purpose: To analyze the 15-year results of corneal crosslinking (CXL) in progressive keratoconus.
Design: Retrospective follow-up analysis of interventional study patients.
Methods: This study included keratoconic eyes with progressive disease treated from 2001 to 2006 at the Department of Ophthalmology, Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital, TU Dresden, Germany.
Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of adjunctive selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) in reducing 24-h intraocular pressure (IOP) fluctuations and nocturnal IOP peaks.
Methods: In this prospective interventional case series, 157 medically treated eyes of 157 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) who were assigned SLT to further reduce IOP were consecutively included. Each patient had a complete glaucoma work-up and 24-h IOP monitoring (6 measurements, including one in the supine position) taken before and on average 6 months after SLT.
Background: The physical therapy (PT) department at a level 1 trauma center identified vendor delivery delays of off-the-shelf (OTS) spinal orthoses that delayed patient mobilization.
Objective: This study aimed to identify improvements in mobilization times, discharge times and reduction in the cost of care after centralizing the management of orthoses within the therapy department.
Method: The centralized management of OTS spinal orthoses included stocking three adjustable lumbosacral and thoraco-lumbosacral orthosis sizes and ensuring that all personnel received training to appropriately fit the orthoses to patients.
Article Synopsis
- This study examines the outcomes of patients with intermediate-high and high-risk pulmonary embolism treated with the Inari FlowTriever mechanical thrombectomy system.
- A total of 27 patients were analyzed, showing significant improvements in pulmonary artery pressures and heart rates after the procedure, although there were some serious complications, including deaths.
- The findings suggest that mechanical thrombectomy is a feasible option for high-risk PE patients with acceptable complication rates, highlighting the need for further research in larger populations.
Article Synopsis
- One challenge in placing a tunneled central venous catheter (CVC) for hemodialysis is accurately positioning the catheter tip near the right atrium (RA) using fluoroscopy.
- Researchers aimed to determine if a weighted mean from two specific reference distances could help assess catheter tip positions relative to the RA.
- The study found that many catheter tips were positioned low relative to the RA, indicating a possible underestimation in using the landmark technique for placement, which could affect patients with particular characteristics.
Purpose: To evaluate the ability of biomechanical indices provided by the Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA; Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments) and dynamic Scheimpflug analyzer (Corvis ST; Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH) to distinguish between normal eyes and eyes with very asymmetric ectasia (VAE) and mild and moderate keratoconus.
Methods: This prospective, observational, and monocentric study included normal eyes (defined as keratoconus percentage index < 60, Belin/Ambrósio total deviation value [BAD-D] < 1.6, inferior-superior keratometry [I-S value] < 1.
Background: To determine the repeatability and agreement using corneal tomography of a swept-source optical coherence tomographer (SS-OCT) compared to a rotating Scheimpflug camera (RSC) in normal eyes and keratoconus (KC) eyes.
Methods: This prospective repeatability analysis was performed at the Department of Ophthalmology of University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany. Forty-three normal and 57 KC eyes were enrolled in the study.
Objective: Patient-centered care and shared decision making (SDM) are generally recognized as the gold standard for medical consultations, especially for preference-sensitive decisions. However, little is known about psychological patient characteristics that influence patient-reported preferences. We set out to explore the role of personality and anxiety for a preference-sensitive decision in bladder cancer patients (choice of urinary diversion, UD) and to determine if anxiety predicts patients' participation preferences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To assess the occurrence of risk factors for progression of keratoconus and failure rate after corneal cross-linking (CXL) in patients with progressive keratoconus.
Methods: This retrospective study observed 230 eyes of 173 patients with a minimum follow-up of 36 months after CXL. A total of 185 eyes underwent CXL once (80%) (control) and 45 (20%) underwent this treatment more than once (Re-CXL-group).
Background: Corneal cross-linking (CXL) is used to treat corneal ectatic diseases. The aim is to improve the reduced consolidation of the cornea in order to halt further corneal protrusion and therefore subsequent deterioration of the optical imaging proportions.
Material And Methods: In this article the principles of corneal cross-linking based on riboflavin and UV light are presented including recent research results.
Purpose: To investigate the accordance and repeatability of tomographic parameters measured by a new swept-source optical coherence tomographer (SS-OCT, ANTERION), a rotating Scheimpflug camera (RSC, Pentacam), and a dual Scheimpflug-Placido system (DSP, Galilei G6).
Setting: Department of Ophthalmology of University of Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany.
Design: Prospective reliability analysis.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers studied the effectiveness of combining T2-weighted imaging with T2-mapping in detecting prostate cancer in 40 patients, comparing this method to standard T2-weighted imaging.
- They found that while there was only a slight improvement in reader agreement and overall diagnostic accuracy, the combination method significantly increased sensitivity for detecting malignancy from 49.2% to 73.0%.
- Despite the higher sensitivity, the combined method produced slightly lower specificity, meaning it could lead to more false positives, but both techniques had comparable predictive values for diagnosing prostate cancer.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to evaluate if MRI size cut-offs can effectively identify clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCA), focusing on improving existing criteria in PI-RADS.
- MRIs from 293 patients were analyzed, with tumors measured from different zones and correlated with their Gleason grades; 309 lesions were examined.
- Results indicated that lesion size has a stronger association with clinically significant cancer in the peripheral zone (PZ) than in the transition zone (TZ), suggesting size cut-offs of 14 mm for PZ and 21 mm for TZ to better differentiate between cancer severities.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the relationships between water diffusion, tissue stiffness, and viscosity in prostate cancer compared to benign prostatic hyperplasia using advanced imaging techniques.
- The research involved 39 men, revealing that prostate cancer exhibited higher stiffness and viscosity while showing lower water diffusion compared to benign hyperplastic tissues.
- Tomoelastography effectively differentiated prostate cancer from normal tissues, indicating its potential as a diagnostic tool in assessing prostate conditions.
Background And Purpose: The Neck Imaging Reporting and Data System was introduced to assess the probability of recurrence in surveillance imaging after treatment of head and neck cancer. This study investigated inter- and intrareader agreement in interpreting contrast-enhanced CT after treatment of oral cavity and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
Materials And Methods: This retrospective study analyzed CT datasets of 101 patients.
This article presents the case of a 44-year-old contact lens wearer who presented with acute keratitis resistant to antibacterial treatment in the right eye. The anterior segment of the eye showed circular conjunctival hyperemia, a corneal white cell infiltrate with radiating margins and a central corneal erosion. Microbiological investigation of a corneal scraping revealed growth of Scedosporium apiospermum.
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